There is a group of "rebels" in the U.S. Forest Service that have
created a group called the Forest Service Employees for Environmental
Ethics, and their web site is http://www.afseee.org/
I sent a message to that group from their web page encouraging the
members to check out our little club here in the usenet. I don't recall
seeing any messages from members of that group in our newsgroups, but
I'd like to see what they have to say and get some chatter going on
their issues and perhaps some might also be interested in the new Global
Assoc. of Online Foresters (G.A.O.F.) on it's own list server that has
been recently put together by our "rep" from Scotland, Nick Ananin. Good
going Nick! Let's drink to that!
So it seems that there now are developing several opportunities for the
forestry community to express itself online. These 2 usenet groups are
the broad umbrella, where anything goes- and there are several more
specialized forums, such as the G.A.O.F., Nick's forestry chat room at
http://forestry.tqn.com/gi/chat/parachat/parachat.htm, my new web page
which will be a collection of forestry essays
(http://forestmeister.com/global-online-essays/home.html), and many
forestry web pages poping up. I know that several more web pages are in
development in Massachusetts, the Athens of the western hemisphere, led
by yours truly of course. <G>
There is and always has been a great diversity of thinking in the
forestry/environmental community and the net is a great way to "air"
these ideas, now in the Global Village. I'm sure Marshal McLuhan would
have enjoyed it very much. Why wait for the annual meeting of your
favorite group- a very primitive idea- when you get can connect with
cutting edge foresters and environmentalists on a continuous basis?
Now if only we can get more participation from the forestry
bureaucracies (now represented world wide by Steve Nix from 'Bama) and
the logging/sawmill people (so far unseen here) and more landowners
(several active here). I still can't email to either my local service
foresters or any timber harvesters in my area; but I never let up on
them. But at least the more progressive forest owners in my area are
rapidly entering the Global Village. <G>
Der Forestmeister